Hi All,
First I want to say thanks to the team at Alta for sending me some APs to have a mess with and am really excited about the future of Atla Labs.
Coming from a complete UniFi setup, I have replaced all of my UI APs this weekend after some extensive testing. 2x U6-LR 2x U6-IW and 2x U6-Mesh have been replaced with the 4 Alta AP6P’s.
I’ll start with what I like: the design and form factor. These really aren’t large devices compared to the size of even the U6-LR’s which look massive next to AP6, and they look the part. As you can see I have installed them in a variety of locations, from old-fashioned hallways with coving to outdoors. Because of the small size, I am happier to mount them in ‘better’ locations as they aren’t big at all and blend in nicely.
The performance is great, really great. Of cause these are new APs I was expecting some slow waiting times, and the odd hiccup here and there. So far nothing… the APs are fast-boot and apply changes really quickly. Great job - love it. Even the UI is rapid and free. Who does this?
At 5Ghz, compared to the U6-LR the performance is very similar through thick brick walls. I have a feeling this is to do with physics. Through thinner internal walls, floorboards, and less dense obstacles performance seems far better than that of the U6-LR (around 10%) with signal levels pretty much the same as the U6-LR (this is impressive considering the size difference) With clear LOS performance is 10-15% better than U6-LR.
2.4 GHz is where I’ve seen big improvements over the UI offerings. Previously I would have never used 2.4Ghz leaving it disabled for my main networks. U6-LR maxed out around 80mbps where as AP6P can push 110 easily. The range seems identical to U6-LR.
The UX overall is great and feels futuristic due to its cloud-based nature. It has pretty much everything you need without being overloaded with options however, I’m sure more will come in the future.
What don’t I like? Not much really. The APs run a little hot and draw around 7w each. A little more power than most other APs. My suggestions would be for the UX. Change ‘devices’ to ‘clients’ on the top bar to avoid confusion between devices. On the dashboard, when you press ‘view more’ on a client as well as the current options can it display some more information regarding what AP, signal strength, etc instead of going to the ‘devices’ tab to view this type of info. Please can we have a power slider for independent 2.4 and 5ghz tuning per AP?
Other than that, loving the system. I’ve just installed the app from Test Flight so will give that a spin over the weekend. Keep up the great work!
More to come here as well.